When Language becomes Violent: the (lack of an) Abortion Debate in Turkey

Within a week of my arrival back to Turkey, Prime Minister Erdoğan threw the country into a frenzy by claiming that “that every abortion equals an Uludere,” equating abortion with the killing of 34 innocent civilians by Turkish armed forces, who mistakenly were thought to be PKK militiamen due to botched intelligence.  This affair, which occurred on 28 December 2011, has continued to top the agenda in Turkey with the government trying to dodge any responsibility. With this one sentence, Erdoğan succeeded in swaying attention away from Uludere and changed the agenda to abortion.  First, it needs to be said that the comparison between abortion and jet fighters bombing innocent civilians left most accepting that this was yet another one of Erdogan’s blunders. However, the Prime Minister also unleashed a violent campaign of words against women who have legally chosen to abort their pregnancies, by stating that abortion is equal to murder.  If this was not enough, he also confused most people by claiming that equally worrying for Turkey is the high rate of c-sections, as this put the country’s women at risk of limiting their birthrate to two children. Lastly, the icing on the cake was his hinting that both c-sections and abortions was the result of a conspiracy to limit Turkey’s young population from growing at an expansive rate.

Within hours, the media and politicians grabbed on this and as a result the last two weeks or so we have seen numerous “men” come out with the harshest of words, with the news outlets filled with such language as cinayet (murder) and tecavuzculer (rapists). Especially showing their insensitivity have been members of the ruling AK party who have stated that they will do their utmost to make almost all abortions illegal and this even including women who have been raped. The health minister, Recep Akdag, offered a solution to these victims of rape, stating that the state would be in charge of taking care of the new class of orphans, basically meaning that rape victims would have to serve a nine-month term holding a baby. Of course, not taking into consideration the pain and emotional damage thousands of women will go through; of course, not taking into account that without an abortion option, women most likely will be subjected to more violence due to cases of honor killings which will occur once they are found pregnant. Not to mention cases where women will be carrying the baby of a member of their family as a result of familial rape (an issue discussed on one Turkish television channel this evening). Not to think about the number of women who will opt for suicide, try to perform self-induced abortions, or find themselves injured in illegal clinics.  

The violent language however reached a new high with Ankara’s mayor Melih Gokcek offering a solution to the women that have no mercy for their unborn fetuses. Gokcek, who ironically is trying “to protect life,” asked why should the child pay for the crime of the mother, [in that case] let the mother kill herself. 

Well, it seems if the government has it their way, within the near future, the time limit to abort will be lowered from ten to four weeks, a stage where pregnancy often can go unnoticed.  We will need to wait and see the stipulations which come with the new sanctions. 

I suppose the tragedy in this is that the government has shown that it is not interested whatsoever in opening this topic to a debate with the medical world and the public at large. Overnight, they have attacked women’s right over their body and did so in a reckless and hurtful way. Numerous demonstrations have been held, and on the nightly news one demonstration in Ankara caught my attention. It was a group of women hitting the police with sticks and confronting the police force’s batons and shields. Of course, the sticks were symbolic and posed no challenge but it reflected the polarization we will see with one sided decisions by a government which has a strong enough majority to create new status-quos with the snap of a finger. Furthermore, with a government with almost twenty male ministers and only one female, they should think twice about what the real issues women deal with on a daily basis, such as violence and a lack of education, just to name a few. However, sadly they have demonstrated the opposite.    

Cihan Sentenced to 11 years in Prison....

May 10, 2012

Late in March, I dedicated a blog entry to the fate of Cihan Kirmizigul, a promising engineering student at Galatasaray University, who had been held for 25 months awaiting trial for an alleged terrorist attack on a market, which was politically motivated. In my words, I stated that:

All evidence and common sense points to the fact that Cihan had nothing to do with the protesters chanting Kurdish slogans, who clashed with police and threw molotov cocktails targeting a neighborhood market. Rather, he was an innocent bystander who happened to be wearing a keffiyeh, one similar to those who committed the attack. With no other evidence linking him to the crime other than the keffiyeh, Cihan has been held for over two years in solitary confinement charged with taking part in an act of terror. All common sense would lead to the simple understanding that that Cihan was at the wrong place at the wrong time...Yes, for this he has been held in a F-type solitary cell. If this Kafkaesque scenario was not enough, the prosecutor has called for a 45-year term sentence, if he is found guilty of the crime …”

Following his last trial, which I reported on, he was released pending trial which took place yesterday. Sadly, the verdict is in: Cihan Kirmizigul will sit in prison for 11 years and 3 months for aiding a terrorist organization, throwing a Molotov cocktail, and causing property damages among other charges.  Let us hope that a court will accept an appeal since it seems that the only evidence they can produce was the original reason for keeping him detained for so long; wearing a keffiyeh similar to the perpetrators of the crime. In fact, if I have all the facts right, the only eye-witness who originally testified that he saw Cihan commit the crime, retracted his statement even before his trial in March. Further, it seems that no finger prints or any other evidence has been found connecting Cihan to the crime. 

I will end with the words of my former blog that stated that indeed this is a tragedy since:

Cihan was: a serious young aspiring bright student, someone who in normal circumstances should be a poster-boy for Turkey's education system: a youngster of Kurdish origin, from a rural background, that despite all the cards stacked up against him reached the top and integrated into one of Turkey's most prestigious public institutions. 

Lets hope that this is not the last we hear of this trial. Certainly, this should worry the AKP led Turkish government since it stands as a stark case of injustice that breaks all conventions of common sense.  Yes, if Cihan is guilty let him serve; however, until now it seems that to most that he simply is being held for being at the wrong place at the wrong time, not to mention wearing a keffiyeh and being of Kurdish origin.  

Israeli Elections on the Way?

May 1, 2012

According to reports coming from Israel, the Likud party is considering calling early elections, which would be held either before the High Holidays in early September, or following then in mid-October. What is sure is that this will certainly work towards strengthening the Likud's hold over the Knesset. In the meantime, today Tzipi Livni, the former head of the centrist-right Kadima party resigned following losing the leadership to former general Shaul Mofaz, who will need to work hard to not lose their votes to the upcoming Yesh Atid (there is a Future) party, led by Yair Lapid. This party will certainly make waves in the elections; it seems that every Israeli election has a "star" party that comes and goes like the tide. Lapid, a former TV anchor and columnist is the son of Tomi Lapid, who also made the jump from journalism to politics during the nineties.

As for the Labor party, they have hopes that the former investigative and hardball former radio host ShellyYahomovitz can save them from thier own self-destruction, following the exiting of 4 members who followed Defense Minister Ehud Barak and founded the Atsmaut (Independence) party, and left the labor party with a measly 8 seats. Another party, which will need to be watched is Avgidor Lieberman's Israel Beitenu (Israels Our Home), which swept us 15 seats and serves as the third largest party, behind Kadima and Likud, but of course has served the Likud as their major coalition partner. If an indictment comes against Lieberman for corruption in the next few weeks, that could lead to a decline in the party, which has led the anti-democratic legislation during the last few years.

Lastly, for the Sephardic religious party Shas, the fourth largest party in the Knesset, could see a split if they do not allow Aryeh Deri back in as a its leader, now that he is out of prison for serving his time related to corruption. Therefore, one of the most charismatic leaders of the nineties is back on the playing field and if the Rabbi Ovadia Yosef does not give him ample voice in the party, he could form a competitive party dividing their vote.

As we see, things are heating up, and once declared I will follow this closely! Something is wrong about elections in the summer, or even around the September Holidays. Well, one thing is for sure, the competing parties better get their act together if they want to make a dent in the Likud's ability to sweep more seats. Sadly, I say this since under the Likud and Israel Beitenu government no progress whatsoever has been made on the peace process, and little tolerance has been shown to competing views within the Israeli society. I could go on, but this will be for another blog entry.....